Land acquisitions to begin soon for Carter Lake-to-Boulder pipeline

Boulder will soon contribute $800,000 to acquiring the right-of-way needed to clear a path for the long-proposed Carter Lake-to-Boulder water pipeline.

In 2008, the Boulder City Council dedicated $1 million to preliminary engineering, permitting and right-of-way acquisition for the project. The pipeline has not received final approval, but the city staff updated the council on the project in a memo this week.

After four years of planning, Northern Water -- leading the project on behalf of Boulder, Left Hand Water District, Longs Peak Water District and the town of Frederick -- is ready to begin acquiring the land needed along the pipeline's proposed future alignment, the memo said.

Design and construction plans likely won't come before the City Council until 2015 or later, but city staff members indicated that property values are expected to escalate 9 percent each year acquisition is delayed, adding up to $60,000 a year to Boulder's $800,000 contribution.

"Right now, we are basically going to try to preserve our option for the future by moving ahead with right-of-way and easement acquisition," said Bob Harberg, Boulder's utilities planning and project management coordinator. "If ... we decide to move forward with this project, we won't have to contend with the difficulties of land acquisitions."

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Carter Lake lies in Larimer County and delivers water to Broomfield via a 33.5-mile pipeline built in 1995. Since then, a series of smaller pipes and open canals have been built to deliver Carter Lake water to Boulder and its partners on the new pipeline project.

As needs have increased, Boulder and its partners in 2007 began looking at a new pipeline that would trace the path of the old pipeline before veering off and eventually delivering water to Boulder Reservoir, according to the staff memo. The new project does not grant participants the right to draw more water from the system than is already allowed.

In June, the Boulder County commissioners -- after assessing several suggested paths for the pipeline, including at least one that would have affected property owners along the western edge of Longmont -- approved a more rural path, Harberg said.

The commissioners attached nearly three dozen conditions of approval, many dealing with restoration of agricultural lands. Those conditions will have to be dealt with if and when the stakeholders finally approve the estimated $33.2 million project, about $21.2 million of which will come from Boulder, according to city officials.

The enclosed pipeline will provide water year-round -- as opposed to seasonally, as is the case with the canal system -- and will better protect the water from contamination, leading to more consistent drinking water quality, according to the staff memo.

"City staff still thinks the pipeline is the best long-term solution for delivering water to the city for drinking water purposes in a safe and reliable manner," Harberg said.

Boulder Mayor Matt Appelbaum said he is supportive of the city staff continuing to work on the project.

"My assumption is this will move along, and hopefully, eventually the pipeline will be built," he said. "At this point, given that we will be more reliant over time on water coming form that direction, ensuring that it is a safe a secure source is really important to us."

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